Handmade holiday greetings

Making your own Christmas cards can be super quick, totally easy and very inexpensive. Follow these simple steps to make a unique, handmade Christmas card that doesn't require any special or expensive scrapbooking tools and goes together quickly! This is the perfect card project for the beginning paper-crafter.

Create this adorable snowman and bunting Christmas card!

Supply list:

1 — 8-1/2 x 11-inch piece green card stock

1 — 4-1/2 x 7-1/2 inch piece sky blue card stock

3 white buttons, in graduated sizes

Various scraps red-patterned fabric

Small scrap grey felt (for snowman's hat)

Small scrap green cotton fabric (for scarf)

Fine-tipped black marker

Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

Sewing machine with contrasting thread

Create card base

Fold your green cardstock in half, lengthwise, to create your card base. Align your blue paper with the top folded edge of the green card, center it, and glue the paper into place. Stitch around the perimeter of the blue cardstock to add a decorative touch. Alternately, you can stitch around the blue card before you glue it into place — this will prevent the stitching from showing on the inside of the card. If you do it this way, use extra glue to hold these pieces together.

Create bunting

Cut six triangles out of the assorted red-patterned fabric, each measuring approximately 1-1/2 inches tall. Lay out your bunting banner triangles into a curved shape near the top of your blue cardstock. You may need to add, subtract or trim the triangles, depending on the curve of your banner. Hot glue just the pointed tips of your triangles to temporarily hold them in place. Set your sewing machine on a long stitch and carefully stitch the top of your fabric banner into place on the blue cardstock. If you want to avoid visible stitches on the inside of your card, you will want to create and attach your bunting banner to the blue cardstock prior to completing step one.

Cut out hat and scarf shapes

To create your hat, first measure the width of your top button and add 1/4-inch. Cut a square that is approximately this length on all four sides. Cut out 1/4-inch notches on two parrallel sides to create the hat shape, angling your cut at the brim . To create the hat band, cut a strip of fabric that is equal to the width of your hat and measures 1/4-inch wide. To create the scarf shape, use the same measurement you used for the hat square to create a rectangle that is going to the width of the neck, leaving extra material at one end to cut out scarf ends in a flyaway look, as shown.

Finishing touches

Glue on your button snowman as shown. Add the scarf and hat, with band, using additional glue. Handwrite your message using a fine tipped black marker.